Living With Noise

I really don't understand why people want to live downtown.  If I had a choice I wouldn't.  Of course, not everyone is equally affected by noise.  I grew up near an airport and the sound of overhead jets has never bothered me since I grew up hearing them.  I cannot stand invasive noise, especially from other people's music and especially the sound of strong base. 

It is difficult co-existing with others, especially if your next door neighbours are largely people with addictions and mental health issues as many are in the building next door.  I suspect that a lot of them might also be survivors of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.  Repeatedly I am serenaded by stereos and radios played loudly through open windows.  In warm weather I often have to keep my window closed.  Fortunately the staff in the neighbouring building are supportive and proactive and always do what they can to quieten things down when I phone to complain.

Not so easy to trace is the low ambient base that often comes vibrating into my suite around dinner time and mysteriously goes away no later than eight.  This has been going on for the past two years or so, or ever since the Japanese restaurant opened downstairs and of course they are under suspicion and I have informed the city about them, just in case.

For me the huge challenge is learning to coexist with unwelcome noise given that I live in an apartment and that this apartment is located downtown a little bit too near to the city's so-called entertainment district which is really a sorry excuse for drunken, noisy and violent behaviour by young people with few social skills and zero intelligence, emotional and otherwise.  On top of the mess is that I am particularly impacted by unwelcome noise: a symptom and after-effect of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Earplugs sometimes work but at times the base supersedes the earplugs and I still have to cope with a shadow of the unwanted noise.  It is going to be an effort and a journey to learn how to coexist with this racket.  It is not going to go away and I am unable to move.  I am on a low income and affordable housing is very scarce in this most expensive of cities.  I suppose that I could move elsewhere but I am sixty years old and not exactly a high priority for potential employers.

This too will pass.  In the meantime this could be a welcome challenge to learn more patience and compassion.